While Charles and Ernest were still little boys, their baby sister Fannie came to live in the nursery. Just as she was old enough to run about, the dear little girl died. Then the house was full of sorrow. Many of the poems Longfellow wrote at this time tell the story of his grief at the loss of his little daughter.
Charles was six years old and Ernest four, when their father first took them to school. He left them sitting on little chairs among the other children in an old house near a large elm tree.
It was under this same tree that Washington took command of the American army.
As time went on three little girls took the places of the boys in the nursery. How all these children loved their father! They thought him the best playfellow in the world, and so he was.
He made toys for them, taught them games, and wrote letters which he placed under their pillows for them to find in the morning.
II.
| beloved | loss | providing | wreaths |
| sealing | grief | happiness | package |
| coasting | meant | playfellow | pleasure |
Longfellow writes in his journal about coasting with the boys for hours upon the hillside, and of working hard with all the children making a snow house in the front yard.
Again he tells of charming birthday parties when children played in the hay and scrambled for sugar plums. These parties always ended with a fine birthday supper.
On the first of May the children sometimes had a May party. The girls wore wreaths upon their heads and danced around the May pole. Then they all went to the summer house for a feast.